Bring It On!

Amy Goodman wasted no time in addressing her harassment at the Border. Tune in to DemocracyNow! for a delightful report on the money mongers. Be careful who you mess with. And click in Amazon portal at the right to buy her new book; it's worthy prose - on everything.

Now, a short word to those who ask me to edit something [short, because it will take me no time at all - and I'm so good with words]. Um . . . yeah, that's why it's my business and I get paid for it. Call your plumber friend and ask him to stop the drip in your bathroom - for free. What is it about social attitudes towards artists and literati that you think our times is so worthless? Rethink. It's highly irritating. Especially for one dealing with the very last day of a novel deadline for NaNo! If you really were my friend, you'd know that.

Bah, Hamburg!

As the last of the turkey is being consumed in sandwiches, with copious beverages and never-ending sports, we are about to enter the threshold of our most dreaded holiday. Xmas tunes are already deluging my vehicle's radio, while decorations and schlock have been in the stores before Halloween even had a chance to die a zombie death. The Rev and I loathe it, not because we no longer have connections to family, nor because it's become one more commercial enterprise that throws participants into year-long debt. Even the fact that it goes on forever and you want to bomb every ad agency on Madison Ave. are beside the point.

No, the hardest part isn't having to explain to anyone trying to push it on you or shout about heathens trying to take THEIR holidays away - annoying as that is - doesn't hold a candle to recognizing the inanity of the celebrators' dogmas. It's hard to balance their wishes for 'happy holidays' and 'peace on earth' when we're bombing the crap out of people all over the world. So, ho, ho, ho your way to making Walmart rich, try not to think about a family that possessed only a mud hut and two goats until we took that from them, and don't even start when you see me coming. I'm the one NEVER wearing red and green as a color combo.

Worth Any Trek

Yes, that's moi with the silver mane as the inimitable Amy Goodman signs my book; the Rev couldn't get any closer for a cell phone pic. We'd forgotten the camera in our excited rush, but it wouldn't have mattered. Even arriving early in PA, they turned us away due to fire regs. Some wise coordinator had booked a nationally-renowned author and journalist into the smallest room available. What were they thinking?

So, not to be side-tracked, we hunted down a computer for directions and times on Bainbridge and continued the journey - to an equally packed venue. She, on the way, arrived slightly late, having been harassed by Border Patrol, stuck on the ubiquitous Hood Canal Bridge, and encountering an accident 1 mi. from the destination, as hordes of travelers waited along the roadside for the holiday ferries. Keep watching DemocracyNow! as she reports from the Copenhagen Climate Summit and you may be privileged to hear what happened at the border that got her interested, finally, in the Olympics. Their stupid mistake will be our gain if she does anything like her usual delving for details into the corruption that is supposed to be the world's unification through sports.

All I can say is that she is everything I thought she would be - and too rare for words.

Getting Out of the House

The Rev and I are trekking up the Sound to hear Amy Goodman read from her new book today. Breaking the Sound Barrier is the latest, but you really can't go wrong with any of her essays, including those written with her, equally talented, brother. (Note: Amazon is having massive sales today.) I'm too excited to even compose a blog. She is on my Top Ten List of Heroines. We don't have enough feminine role models like this. Talk to you tomorrow.

P.S. Thanks a heap to my in-house techie for solving the hosting and web site problems I didn't know I had until he discovered them. Don't know how anyone operates without IT geeks! We love you and wish you all rest during the holidays. The www never sleeps.

Wild Turkey

There was a great deal for whole birds last week, but the smallest was too large for my meager freezer. We cooked it over the weekend, had the big meal, froze a lot, and have been munching on sandwiches all week. As far as I'm concerned, the only reason for that lengthy effort is cold, turkey sandwiches later. So, it's pizza today - another non-labor favorite - and both the Rev and I are ecstatic about never having to gather with our dysfunctional families again. Yes, we like being alone for the holidays and fend off every invitation.

Oh, yeah, and the Chimney Sweeps fixed the storm damage with a hearty holiday wish and no charge. The roofer . . . that's another matter, but I'll deal with it next week. Tomorrow, meeting the wonderful Amy Goodman, and the best news of all. I finished NaNo yesterday with editing days to spare and a total of 50,297 words in 25 days. Breeeeeeathe.

Having Bad Thoughts

If you join me frequently, you probably know that the only way I would suffer through an entire episode of FOX Noise would be forcibly bound and gagged. But the organization is so outrageous that one can't even escape it by watching real journalists on the web. They, and I, am wondering why no feminists - or upstanding, publicly recognized women in general - have come forth to call bull!#$% on their continuing usage of the terms 'raping you' when referring to current govt. or 'prostitute' in describing Congresswomen and Senators with whom their pundits disagree. Beck went even farther by stating that we were all a "13-yr.-old girl and the government's Roman Polanski!" Jackass.

You can guess at my bad, politically incorrect thoughts - but, no, I wouldn't wish that even on ignorant, blathering, red-neck, racist, sexist, agist pseudo-evangelists. Just shut the hell up, and shame on you, women who could be heard reprimanding them and aren't. Oh yeah, and FOX sucks!

Chaos In, Chaos Out (or GIGO)

It seems the current administration isn't listening to any sane advisers and has agreed to 34,000 more troops to Afghanistan. One investigative reporter has done the research and discovered that this will encompass most of our remaining service people (no one is volunteering, wonder why?) and that many of those will be on their 5th re-deployment. Is it any wonder why the military suicide rate is the highest it's ever been? Stop the frigging wars!

Higher on my ironic scale are the recent protests at CA colleges, from students receiving 32% increases in their tuition. They are not stupid; they hear that top professors receive annual salaries of $200,000, while coaches get $2 mil, plus the hiring of temp profs for essential courses will now be laid off. As I watch the younger generation engaging in fighting back as they are beaten by campus rent-a-cops, I can't help but chuckle and think that academia might - at this late date - finally miss hippies. We were peaceful, sitting in as they called us every name in the book, offering little resistance to being dragged out. Times change. Kudos to the Kids!

The Final Stretch

Heading into the last week of speed-writing a novel for NaNo is always a daunting experience. Either you hate everything you've written or you simply can't comprehend why you started such insanity in the first place. Nothing gels and your mind is awash with how to make this behemoth come together without going back and editing, a carnal sin until Dec. 1 by NaNo standards. The hardest part is always the turning off of one's Inner Editor at the starting gate. Giving her a foot in the door is not a wise decision now.

But then something happens, in the middle of the night, when muses occupy your plot store. An epiphany is left on your work table. Mine came this morning and I had the map of my Vision Quest, without which no painting, poem or prose has ever come to fruition. I know what it looks like and where it's going. No, that doesn't mean the Editor won't rake me over the coals next month and make me delete words I thought were golden. But it does indicate that I will make it over the finish line and have raw clay assembled for something that may resemble a suitable sculpture, once the fine-tuning is done. Thank you, Lovely Muses.

Wall Street Lives

Which doesn't matter squat to the majority of us, except for the fact that we're sinking further into massive recession - caused by them. The ultimate sign of this appeared in this Sun. Peninsula Daily News. Seems the St. Vincent de Paul thrift shop in Port Angeles will be closing its doors on Dec. 31. It hasn't been able to generate enough income to keep its doors open and has been robbed several times over the last year. How much more of an indication of hard times do we need than that? Even a second hand shop can't make it? Wow. It's nice to hear that the rich are getting richer and not giving anything back.

Is Separation a Foreign Word?

What is it about the term 'separation of church and state' that our esteemed law makers do not understand? The health bill to be voted on this evening is riddled with new concessions to members pet ear marks (blackmail for votes). Those are to be expected as a process by which our corrupt system has worked since its inauguration. That doesn't concern me nearly as much as evangelical beliefs being shoved into place, so that to have anything we'll have to knuckle under to religion-based propaganda. It doesn't help that most of it involves the recurring war on women, the poor, and our children's education.

Just as many of you may not be aware that Creationism is mandated in TX schools as of this year, you probably don't know that one of the needed votes was bought with further funding for Abstinence Only. Never mind that the program didn't work, won't work in the future, and will continue to promote the rise of STDs in teens. It is a secular precept and has no more place in health care than the abortion debacle. So here's to you, ignorant Senators:

West's Encycl. of Am. Law: Separation (n).

1. 1. The act or process of separating.
   2. The condition of being separated.
2. The place at which a division or parting occurs.
3. An interval or space that separates; a gap.

If a Tree Falls in the Forest . . .

No, we didn't hear it, because the Sound had what could only be called a hurricane last night, by someone having lived on the FL coast. Sheets of rain danced down the highway; the town was completely black for 6 hrs.; the Rev and I revived the ancient art of conversation; and a gorgeous, century-old, deciduous tree across the road fell to the onslaught. There is a pond in my side yard. The back roof and fireplace decided to spring leaks, forming a puddle in the laundry room, and the wind cap on the chimney is hanging on by a thread. There are limbs across the driveway that I'll have to lop off from trees I never wanted to trim. I've spent the morning dealing with roofers, chimney sweeps, and insurance companies.

It may sound silly, but the residential damage doesn't bother me half as much as having watched that maple sway in all seasons, hearing it murmur with soft winds and scream in the high ones, and delighting in its change of clothing colors as the years have gone by. Sunrises will not be the same without it. There is a residual stump, probably 5' across, in the grove where it once stood. I grieve with the birds, who most likely lost their homes, but it is making a natural bridge across the seasonal stream. If the sawmill next door doesn't haul it away, it may yet have more life left to house fern and lichens, to aid raccoons in their midnight foraging. And that will be beautiful, too. But, I will miss that tree, who probably held memories of an age before cars and electric lines.

The Madness of America

Has the world flipped to Bizarro mode (blatant Superman reference) and I didn't notice? Pundits, looking at the incomprehensibly large turnout in MI for that 5 chapter, Alaskan book to be signed by the person who didn't write it, have been pondering a 2012 Presidential ticket featuring Palin and Beck. What the f!#$%^? And I'd like to think it's a joke, but no one with a brain thought The Terminator would land CA, either. And look how well that's turned out for them, with the State now punishing anyone wanting an education and considering bankruptcy.

Maybe it's a momentary lapse of reason in tough times. But, if not, remember that moving thing? I'll be looking beyond one of the oceans or across a national border if those two idiots ever approach the power to make laws. Either this truly is Hell for the intelligent, their Supreme Being is a Cosmic Joker, or He's one sadistic sumbitch.

I Almost Wish the Lions Had Won

Two pieces of filth entered my world today, both of them sponsored by Christians. No, that part didn't surprise me; from childhood, growing up Mennonite, I've been bombarded by their specific form of prejudice. What did bother me was the zealous vehemence underlying the crap. One was reported on Rachel Maddow, t-shirts and such on a print-on-demand site (of which I am a proud shop keeper). I won't mention the name because all I had to do was type a quick search to come up with the offensive items, and I will not support this brand of hate-mongering. But it has to do with Psalm 109.8 and blatantly calls for the assassination of the President. Now, I have my problems with the Prez, but wanting someone to kill him is way over the top. I have reported the site and asked, under the rules we agree to when we enroll, that it be blocked. For those of you who know where I'm talking about, please do the same. Opinions aside, this does nothing to quell the clouds of fanaticism descending upon this Country.

The other crap load came from the 1st ex, who must have deteriorated to the point of forgetting to whom he was married - or worse yet, simply keeps wanting to torment me 40 yrs. later. I HAVE blocked his e-mail from ever darkening my inbox again, no pun intended. It was a video (Muppet-style) of Bin Laden dissing Santa and vowing to destroy our Xmas. Then you see a gun sight; Santa blows him away while wishing him a Merry Christmas; and finally, the last scene is the Muslim Muppet on the ground with blood spreading beneath his head. The attachment was labelled 'Your First Christmas Card'. Yeah, very Christian, unfortunately. I am not amused. One of the many reasons I stopped supporting your blessed birth, Hallmark holiday. What does Peace on Earth mean to you?

Gender Prejudice

Help stop the US War on Women by signing a petition to eliminate the odious Stupak Amendment from any health care package. Our battle cry should be, "If you can fund an erection, you should pay for the consequences!" ( or Ban Viagra coverage.)

Segueing smoothly to a book that admittedly is filled with gender bias, although we can forgive it as a sign of the times, I'm enraptured with a 'new' book I discovered (continuing thanks, Bookmobile) by Mark Twain. I thought I had read everything the indomitable Clemens had written, but it seems one was lost, and an important contest was, thus, derailed. You'll just have to read A Murder, A Mystery, and a Marriage to get the whole tale. Twain's wit lives on a century after him, and rightfully so from a man who described Congress as "America's only native criminal class". Aaaand, segue complete.

Good News

We are so fortunate, Amy Goodman, intrepid reporter (there are still some of those left) for Democracy Now! is beginning a book tour while her studio relocates and to mark the 13th anniversary of their broadcast. She will be in the Puget Sound area from 11/24-27 and you can check the website for other West Coast stops. Breaking the Sound Barrier, written with all of the fierce intelligence and passion for truth that millions have come to expect from Amy Goodman’s reportage, is in Arianna Huffington's words, "crusading journalism at its best."

If we had to pick a sterling role model for young women - and real journalists - everywhere, Amy is at the top of the list. I don't know about you, but few things could keep me away from one of these engagements.

The More You Learn

As I'm wading thru the current NaNo novel challenge - and laying out the book as I go along, art-wise - I realize that the more I learn, the more I need to learn when operating these fantastic programs. Also, if I'd had the entire Adobe Suite when I went to college, what a difference it would have made in my reports. I know, graduating Summa Cum Laude was nothing to sneeze at with my advanced age, and I was continuously on the Dean's List. Yes, I am very proud, considering that I'm the only member of my family to ever graduate from college (my son being the second). I'm just saying that there is no excuse for kids who've had access to all of this stored knowledge to fail - ever, even with a profound learning disability.

So it pains me, as I do research to see mis-information and obvious bad grammar and spelling as I search some of the sites for my current writing. With spellcheck, there's just no excuse. As for the advanced programs, I highly recommend Lynda.com for learning more. It's a steal at $25 bucks a month to learn everything from newsletters to 3D. Educate yourself this year.

Looking for Doom . . .

. . . in all the wrong places seems to be the first reaction of our society, possibly due to the inclusion of Revelations when the Bible was first translated for print. I can't remember a time in my long life when the world wasn't about to end - in some manner, from the Y2K anticlimax to asteroids destroying continents. But this penchant was brought home to me by Bill Nye the Science Guy upon discussing the new release of 2012. Keep in mind that this is a remake of films of the same title, at least 9 of them at last count, relying upon the last (known) calendar of the Mayans, which ends 12/21/12 (a tidy date). We can't ask them if there was an addendum, a cycle after this particular stone, because we wisely killed the ones who didn't mysteriously disappear and let the jungle eat their cities.

What he said was that it may have been the Mayan way of marking the end of a generation and preparing to celebrate the next - a glass half full attitude. Brilliant. We watched one of those movies on Netflix, I think 2012 Doomsday, but they are all the same ilk. It was the most convoluted mixture of religious melding nonsense I've ever witnessed, which might have been endurable if not for the atrocious acting skills. So, I might watch the new one for the FX (I do love exploding SUVs and tidal waves destroying LA), but I certainly won't get my panties in a bunch over the possibility of destruction (um, NASA). Maybe impending doom will get us health care before 2013! Not. Plus I can default on my mortgage.

Event Horizon

Generally a term describing the edge of a black hole, past which no light is apparent by an inside or outside observer, but it's also loosely associated with what the military complex calls a 'point of no return'. As we (NaNos) approach the mid-month challenge, we experience this phenomenon, agonizing over whether what we are writing is pure tripe and deciding whether to scrap it or persevere and hope for a miracle in editing.

It doesn't help when 'news' reports follow the book tours of idiots like Sarah Palin and Carrie Prejean. To consider for a moment that good writers can't even procure an agent, let alone a six figure book deal, is nothing compared to the misery of imagining that these, seriously flawed females are the only icons our young women have shoved before them. It makes that Event Horizon that much shakier. But yes, I'm plodding on; NaNos rock, and I am nothing if not stubborn enough to cross the finish line - good or bad prose.

About Not Supporting Your Troops

It is a startling statistic, on this Veterans' Day, that more of our returning soldiers die after returning to a botched VA than we've lost in the war, many of them to suicide and violent crimes. Still more unsettling is the fact that 1 in 3 service women experience the joys of rape (and that's just the reported cases) with no recourse but being re-victimized by their leaders and peers when they complain. Top that with an attitude by the Military Complex that PTSD is a joke and shouldn't be tolerated, and you begin to see how we 'support our troops' after we've used them up. One wonders why these intrepid souls, who have the guts to enter the quagmire of red tape and abasement, don't start doing PSAs saying, "For those of you considering enlisting, this is how your government treats you."

Every time I see one of those convoluted ribbons on a car bumper, I want to accost the person and find out why they can't comprehend the simple notion that, if soldiers refused to fight there could be no war. As for PTSD, my own, wife-beating, Viet Vet ex finally got into therapy a few years ago - only 30 years after the fact. So, when you're talking about tolerance and attitudes, please support my right not to support, instead of the flak I normally get. Thanks.

On a brighter note, there's a new Celtx available for FREE download, and I highly recommend this program for anyone who's ever had the notion to write a script of any kind. I would, however, caution you to avail the services of forums and tutorials on their site and throughout the Web. It's user-friendly, but there's still nothing worse than not knowing how to retrieve the sweat of your labors. (i.e. Read the Manual!) And, in this form, I would support the troops; tell your stories. It may be the only closure you get.

Get God Out of My Congress

It seems that many elected officials of the Christian persuasion, across the denominational spectrum, are having a hard time understanding the meaning of 'separation of church and state'. FYI numbskulls, most women who've been forced to make the agonizing decision of abortion have never had 'abortion insurance', nor did we know (or believe) that any such animal ever existed. But to slip this female-punitive measure into what you're so inanely terming 'health care' is beyond the pale of overstepping personal bounds for your religious beliefs - of course, only for half your constituents.

For those who have any doubt about the source, understand that the offending amendment was drafted by evangelical radicals who still live at the infamous 'C Street' and feel no societal rules apply to them and theirs concerning mistresses, affairs, etc. So, once again, women are being besieged into submission by fat, rich, white, unfaithful, zealous men, and y'all know my bumper sticker adage. "No womb, no vote." To drive that home, let's propose that all their Viagra (which has always been covered) be demonized and amended, to boot. If they want us to suffer alone through an unwanted pregnancy, take away their means of having any fun getting us there! Procreation, my ass.

Thanks for Nothing

They've done it, and Congress is breaking its arm patting itself on the back for giving us worse than we already had. Make no mistake about it. Between the secret pacts and amendments of the elongated prose, we may never know exactly what they sold us out for - until we need to use it and can't. For one thing, there's a deal with Big Pharma that no future drug ever has to go 'generic', locking in prices that only the wealthy will be able to afford for any new cures. For another, the Pro-Lifers won the battle of making it impossible for anyone but rich females to get an abortion (a right they already had), so I guess it's back to 1950's back alleys and coat hangers for the rest of our sisters. I'm too mad to even go into the rest of it, but none of it is good for anyone who doesn't want to be forced to buy insurance. Oh yeah, the govt.'s willing to pay for that! Congrats Aetna and Blue Cross; you win.

A new study points out that 44% of Congress are millionaires, with at least 7 of them over $100 mil in worth. They HAVE good insurance and could care less whether we do. My hat's off to Dennis Kucinek, one of the few, proud and brave enough to stand up and call bulls!#t!

And one more thing in that category; screw you, Disney, for making this year's Xmas ring with a black Princess and the Frog. It's not enough that you've ruined little, white girls' lives with 'my prince is coming' tripe. Since we managed to burst the color ceiling in DC, you think it's okay to have open season on African-American children. Your only black voices before were the crows in Dumbo! I will, however, grant small credit for more minority faces on the toy pages.

Past Ready to Move

The Rev has called twice, setting out at 8:30 this morning, trying to make it to a 1:45 flight at Sea-Tac, and having missed his second bus transfer to get to the second ferry that will make it - because he missed the first of both. Thanks to an unlisted Hood Canal Bridge opening for a submarine (from our local, nuclear Naval base) that lasted almost an hour and wasn't on the DOT site. I'm assuming they can't notify us of those due to Homeland Security or some crap.

So, I'm past ready to finish the house, list it for sale and get the flock out of the beautiful Olympic Forest. If anyone knows of a sizable house, or one with a guest cottage or workable shop in the Santa Cruz, CA area, let us know. I'm tired of not even having a gas station, driving 40 min. to get groceries when the ice storms hit, AND the 1 1/2 second power outage from the winds yesterday that lost some 3,000 words I was working on for NaNo!

Oh, and P.S. zealot assholes, stop trying to tie that poor, disturbed bastard at Ft. Hood to Muslim terrorism and more hate. We're not even sure he wasn't set up. Anything's possible when half our news is lies. Remember what Orwell said; we've been at war with East Asia forever. The man was omniscient. Maybe we should be looking for housing in Europe.

PTSD . . . Still

I'm sure by now, given the fact that 'news' organizations hilite horrific stories for days on end, that most people have heard of the massacre at Ft. Hood, TX. My first thought was that it's unfortunate the lone gunman has an Eastern sounding name. This will simply add fuel to the racist fires we're now experiencing. But, more importantly, it takes away from the fact that the military complex never seems to learn anything, preferring the insanity of doing the same things repeatedly and expecting different results.

We may never know what caused this individual to flip, as a therapist who treated PTSD. It's reported that he, himself, was due to ship out to war and that it may have been one of his worst fears. What we do know is that many soldiers won't even complain of the condition, due to razzing of fellow machos re: wussiness and systemic denial that there is such a condition. When they do, there is an average of one health worker per 700 soldiers, hardly adequate. The armed forces have never taken this condition seriously, even when it was called 'shell shock' in WWI. They used to just lock them away; now they're given Zoloft (whose side effects include excessive anger) and redeployed to get more of the same that made them what they are - killers out of control. The number of murders and suicides by returning troops has sky-rocketed in this non-war. And that's the real news story, although I doubt anyone will report it.

The Dog Ate My Novel

It's Day 5 in the NaNo race and I'm blazing no trails, seem incapable of developing a strategy. Sure I've got almost 6,000 words (none of them brilliant at this point), but the pattern isn't coming together like it usually does. I woke at 5:30 this morning and succeeded in going back to sleep until 11. Daylight Savings Time - takes me a week to get back in gear. Taking the Rev back and forth to the Ferry puts my schedule out of sync, and it's cold and rainy outside.

But I just saw a famous, newspaper editor on Colbert that published his first book at the age of 80, so I've still got time. And I know this is how things work in the first weeks of the contest. I mean, I have survived it 4 times now. The secret of being a writer is to write. All I have to do is open up that doc and get 1667 words today . . . and tomorrow.

Warned you there'd be bitchin' in Nov.!

Time Machine

37 years ago, today, I was recovering from the delivery of a 10 lb. 12 oz. ball of constant curiosity that would morph into the being known as the Rev. When any Poser tells you that you will soon forget the pain, don't believe them. Being a hippie, I vowed no anesthetics and was screaming for drugs halfway through the process, swearing never to get in that condition twice. I can not imagine going through what is rightly called 'labor' ten times, like my Mother did. And it wasn't as if he was an accident; I suffered two miscarriages before he decided to bless me with his presence. Was it worth it? That part of the legend is true; my life would have been drab and meaningless without this child who brightened every day with something new to teach me.

Sadly, the childhood passes too quickly, and he is off with friends to celebrate - as it should be. Whatever you're doing at the moment, Kris, I want you to know that I'm glad you were born. Every year, on this date, I relive the wonder of holding you for the first time.

The Pioneers Got There Faster

The Rev and I sat on this side of the Hood Canal Bridge for an hour while they ran a test in the middle of the afternoon. We were warned that 90 min. delays could be expected for these during Oct. and stupidly assumed Nov. 2 would be safe, even left early and were right on schedule. They had rushed through the renovations to make themselves look good - closing us down for 2 mos. during tourist high time - and now we're stuck with this mess. The Rev missed his first ferry to the mainland and would just sneak by at the airport by getting the next - and taking a $30 taxi instead of public transit, but as the road opened and we passed miles of stalled cars on the other side, I thought about the truckers and service people who get mired on a daily basis. Poor bastards. And there's no one to sue!

But what amazes me is the way with which, we Americans, have been tortured to such an extent that we now lay down like lemmings and just take the beating. No one honked (except me), no one carped much. They just got out of their cars and walked back and forth, looking at the water, boats, and multi$mansions along the Sound. (Both of us had to pee something fierce, so no walking.) One of the things that always amazed me when I travelled abroad (UK especially) was that their trains and planes were on the dot. Their people expected it, and that's what they got. It takes the Rev 6-10 hrs. to reach his destination in CA each time. I would not be a good traveller in this techno age where Homeland Security demands that we reach the airport hours before the plane - and remove our shoes. I will move; this is getting ridiculous. You can't get anywhere from here.

True Horror

We got thru Halloween, and there were more cuties than usual on our doorstep (thanks), by watching a horrible, 1980s film, Werewolves on Wheels. The Rev tells me that most females have no interest in sci-fi or horror; I fervently hope that is untrue. As for myself, I could watch these genres (and especially werewolves on motorcycles!) whether they're good, bad, or atrocious (and those are the best). In truth, there was only one lycanthrope riding a flaming bike, that in the last 5 min. of the film, and possibly the worst FX (omitting Species III) ever witnessed. The metaphor and lore mixing alone are mesmerizingly incoherent. Yeah, you really need to see this abomination. It's superbly bad.

But my question is, have all the great, writing minds of Hollyweird finally been driven into getting real day jobs? Case in point is the new, ABC remake of "V", the original being not just bad but too inept to watch. Have the Producers finally risen to the mediocrity they so desired? And, trust me on this one, there is a vast difference between bad and mediocre in film terms. Bad is the new good for those of us who are monster junkies.

Start Your Engines

Coming out the other side of the Swine Flu (I hope), but it matters little. The only important thing on my agenda for the next month is that NaNoWriMo starts today. I urge anyone who's ever wanted to write to join us crazies. It is the most definitive moment, exhausting, terrifying, gratifying, and frustrating exorcise you'll ever undertake. Even if you don't reach the goal, that novel will be farther ahead than it was before. Come on; you can do it. NaNo

Don't expect any coherent blogs for awhile, and thanks for your patience. A lot of bitching and moaning will probably occur. I can't wait!